Should promoters profit from athletes’ names and likenesses but not the athletes themselves?
Frankly, it makes no sense to let people make money off athletes without the athletes getting paid or having a say in it. A pair of state lawmakers agree with me.
Sens. Marlon Kimpson (Charleston) and Mia McCleod (Richland County) want South Carolina to let college athletes earn some of the money. They filed Senate bill 935 prohibiting the NCAA and universities from denying student athletes money while in school.
California did it and our state is one of 30 that may.
S.935 says athletes could be paid for signing autographs or appearing in commercials or video games.
University athletic directors and the NCAA  earned $1 billion in 2017.
No wonder they oppose anything that allows college athletes to get any of the money they are raking in.
Is the NCAA vague?
NCAA president Mark Emmert has asked Congress for a national solution rather than each state setting different rules.
The NCAA decided last year to allow student-athletes to benefit from their image and likeness as long as its “consistent with the collegiate model” by 2021.
Sen. Kimpson said he won’t wait and called the NCAA’s proposal “vague.”
“We should not be deterred in our quest to bring economic fairness to the football field or the sports arena,” he said. “We should not be deterred by a simple press release acknowledging what we’ve known all the time that something needs to be done. They’re contemplating a scheme consistent with what they’ve done in the past, with regards to the cost of attendance.”
Not everyone agrees.
University of South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner said he prefers any change be made in Washington so that every university has the same standard.
College athletes enjoy benefits other students don’t get such as the care of medical specialists, tutoring and nutritionists, he said.
Yet other students can earn money for work they do while in school. Student athletes have little time to work even part-time between classes, practices, games and studying.
Questions of fairness
Kimpson cited an example of a student on full scholarship who gets paid for working in the college library.
“If he or she creates an app, they aren’t limited from how much they could negotiate from Apple or Samsung or any other computer manufacturer or software developer,” Kimpson said.
“We’re talking about names on teams that generate enormous sums of money in ticket sales, memorabilia and TV rights.”
What’s your opinion?
Should or shouldn’t they?

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